Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 2

US Source for the 16 MB Upgrade

I've been to the Hong Kong site, and of course, I can't read a bit of it, and am not about to send off my new Prism to places unknown. I currently use nearly 8 MB of memory and am frequently having to pick and choose what to keep and what to delete.
Does anyone know a US source for this type of upgrade which would be more reasonable?? Just because its in the US doesn't mean I'm sold, but I'm much more likely to consider it if I can check it out a bit more thoroughly.

RockDoc

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 1

Upgrade

If these guys can do this, perhaps Handspring should offer something similar. Then we could all have 16MB prisms w/warranties.. I'm also now wondering if the 8MB limit was a hardware issue, then why has Handspring not offered a unit w/ more ram to start with. I would think that if given the choice between a palm and a visor, the 16MB visor would win easily. I would love more, filled my 8MB within 3 hours of opening the box. Just my $.02

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-ed

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 384

Companies that offer memory upgrades

I remember last year that there were companies that offer memory upgrades to the Palm systems, most of them could turn a 2 or 4mb system to a 8mb system. Didn't TRG started as a memory upgrade company before making the TRGpro? Anyway, most of these companies only have 8mb boards so I'm not sure if they have anything like a 16mb board. Shouldn't be hard to find since most Pocket PC devices have 16 or 32 mb chips.

here's a link to the TRG site for memory upgrades:

http://www.superpilot.com/products.htm

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Fat's

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 384

Re: Upgrade

quote:

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Originally posted by BigEd
If these guys can do this, perhaps Handspring should offer something similar....then why has Handspring not offered a unit w/ more ram to start with.

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Fat's

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: bright side of the moon.
Posts: 996

i think it had more to do with placing the Platinum and Prism in a specific price range. Let's face it, if Handspring put another 8MB in the Prism and then had to sell it for $529 instead of $449, it would be less appealing next to an iPaq. The same could hold true with the Platinum and the Clie or Vx. I don't think there are any hardware or software limits to making a 16MB Handspring PDA, however, the company won't do it so that it maintains that price advantage over Palm and PPC devices (I KNOW it'll have more memory than a Clie or Vx and the PalmOS over the PPC iPaq, but it boils down to sales and the reason why we see so many prices that end with 99 cents and why Walmart always has stuff for sale with odd prices like $3.14 or $5.07. Customer perception rules the game.)

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Stealth-Mod.

Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 117

arg, nobody still?

Noone knowledgeable has commented yet. FYI: You can a rough English translation (very rough) by using babelfish.altavista.com's http:// translation facility. Chinese->English (not Japanese).

I have read nothing anywhere to suggest that OS 3.5 or newer Visors are capable of accommodating more than 8Meg of System Memory. We need some hardware hacker to comment.

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 18

Palm OS 3.0 and up can "address" up to 4GIGs of memory, (not 2 like I thought) just as an x86 can. You just have to use it in 64K chunks.

Here is a reference manual with detailed info:

http://oasis.palm.com/dev/kb/papers...rdware_Overview

Registered: Jun 2000
Location: Sunnyvale, CA
Posts: 216

Re: arg, nobody still?

quote:

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Originally posted by zelchenko
Noone knowledgeable has commented yet. FYI: You can a rough English translation (very rough) by using babelfish.altavista.com's http:// translation facility. Chinese->English (not Japanese).

I have read nothing anywhere to suggest that OS 3.5 or newer Visors are capable of accommodating more than 8Meg of System Memory. We need some hardware hacker to comment.

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Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Posts: 80

quote:

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Originally posted by MPM
I don't think that the Palm OS (3.1 or 3.5) has any other limits in it, other that the limits of the hardware it it running on.

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I do NOT look wierd! I just look ... "different".

Registered: Mar 2000
Location:
Posts: 8

verbatim translation of the web page

Okay, here is a verbatim translation of the website.

Betterway Development Ltd
www: http://www.palm-center.com/
e-mail: [email protected]
(address and contact info on the main page)
(They also sell the PenDragon Chinese Input System)

The page you want is the second link from the left, in the big band of links at the top of page.

URL: http://www.palm-center.com/html/upgrade.htm
==========================================================
Iron-Clad Guarantee Upgrade Service

First box:

(blue)uses special equipment(/blue) and not hot-air gun or hair dryer, to open and reassemble Palm V, absolutely will not damage the LCD screen due to the hot air. Uses branded (blue)Low-Power(/blue) high quality RAM, makes the battery
last longer. Before the upgrade, most of the users are concerned about : the question of warranty after the upgrade? Now our company gives you the upgrade service warranty below: (also printed in the warranty certificate): after
upgrade, our company will issue a warranty, eligible for one year free service: Excluding RAM, from the date of the upgrade, regardless of whether the original warranty is expired or not, (blue)first month: guaranteed fixed in two days; the rest, eleven months: guaranteed fixed in fifteen days.(/blue) Otherwise replace a same model machine or an equivalent machine for the customer. If there is no stock, our company will compensate the customer with the market value of the machine . During the repair period, we provide the customer with (blue)temporary machine loan service(/blue), even better than the customer's original warranty. (The free warranty above does not include water getting into the machine, crack, self disassembly, etc. man-made reasons. For display, accessories, battery,
software etc, our company is happy to help your repair.)

Next box:

Immediate service (5-30 minutes), more protection (including all fees: parts, labour and one year warranty)

Price List:

Handspring Prism/Platinum upgrade to 16MB RAM HK$480 (~USD62.31)

=======================================================
Disclaimer:
I am not an employee, customer, etc of the company. Totally unrelated to the company. Any translation error is my own.

Comment: I think the company is more geared towards those customers who bring in their machines in person, and wait/watch while they upgrade their machines there and then. I remember an upgrade exercise, one or two years ago, organised by the Malaysia Palm User Group, to upgrade their members' Palm to 8MB RAM. They brought in an expert from Hong Kong (not sure if he is from the same company), and users are invited to bring in their machines for upgrade during a two-day period.

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 384

Hmm..that 's interesting.

Thanks for the translation. Wow, they can do this thing in about 30 mins. Leads me to believe that the procedure is not all that complicated. Appears basically that you just slap a 16mb chip on there. I wonder why people aren't doing this procedure in the States. My parents have some close friends in Hong Kong, maybe I can ask them to check it out.

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Fat's

Registered: Jun 2000
Location: Sunnyvale, CA
Posts: 216

Not a problem...

quote:

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Originally posted by dpdamour

Even if you're right that the OS has no limits as to the POTENTIAL amount of RAM it can address, I would think that the PDA manufactures would tweak the OS to the maximum limit of the device. Otherwise, programs could try to address memory that doesn't exist thereby crashing the system.

If MY observation is correct, then if this mod increases the available RAM to 16MB then the OS would have to be tweaked to allow for that maximum size.

=Dave=

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Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 18

Remember also that Heap space and Storage space are the same on a Pilot. The Program just asks for Heap and gets it from available heap, regardless of the amount of RAM on the system (assuming there is free memory). Most Pilot Apps get around 11-40K of usable Heap, depending on the OS version. Since the OS knows how much memory is on that system, and the Pilot app can only use OS functions for memory allocation, there is little danger of a program asking for memory addresses that don't exist.

Registered: Nov 2000
Location: ???, Asia
Posts: 69

Guys, I'm going to HK on January 8th, and will check it out and let you all know how it goes. I'll try to get some pics of the process also, so you all can see exactly what goes on. I speak a little Chinese so maybe I can find out if they do mail order or not, etc.

Registered: Nov 2000
Location: Edmonton, AB, Canada
Posts: 63

Heed: I'll pay you for a closeup of an upgraded board!! What are you having upgraded--a prism, or a platinum?

Have a good trip!
Regards,
Mark

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 384

I got an email rply from them:

Well, they finally reply to my email, here's what they wrote:

Hi,

this is main board Ram upgrade to 16MB(additional 8MB) ,
no Springboard module.do it in our Hong Kong office only.
take it about 15 min., cost is HK$480.we support one year warranty
for this upgrade.

http://www.palm-center.com

so it appears to me that they only do in-office upgrades.

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Fat's

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 18

Maybe Heed wants to take a few of our Prisms, and we pay a delivery fee?

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 18

This just in

This just in my email from the dudes in HK...what do you all think? Cash only? Hm...:

Hi,
sorry do it in Hong Kong only, cost HK$480 not includes shipment fee,
if you can pay the shipment fee (send back only), total amount will
are HK$700 (or USD90). sorry we accept cash only.
take it one day only (20 min.)
http://www.palm-center.com
BETTERWAY DEVELOPMENT LTD.
Room 2001, 20/F., Tai Shing Commercial Bldg., 500 Nathan Road,Kowloon,
HK
Tel: 24078556 Fax: 24078503 [email protected]

Registered: Dec 2000
Location: ...somewhere, deep down inside
Posts: 38

16MB Visor Prism?

Please excuse me if I am repeating something that has been posted before (I am new to this forum) but I've been playing around with a real simple work-around to the Visor's the 8 Meg limitation. I have purchased several Backup modules, each module contains a backup of a particular configuration depending on the purpose I would like my PDA to perform. This also gives one an ability to test individual apps as well as combinations of applications on the actual device as opposed to the POSE (a tool I've found indispensable).
It is necessary to have a different sync ID for each config in order to differentiate the setups but that is a simple matter.
The only inconvenience is that currently I have to use the Hard Reset to button combo to delete all my data and I would like to find an application that would do this for me.... and at the risk of infuriating some people out there, I am curious if the Crack 1.1 trojan would serve my purpose (correct me if I am wrong).
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about my findings. Let me know if this is a common usage for this module (I am not aware of any postings of this kind). I feel that this has taken my Prism to a different realm and back again (I would hate to lose this capability w/the 16 Meg upgrade).

I have re-posted this in a more appropriate location as its own subject matter here: http://discussion.visorcentral.com/...?threadid=10330 in order not to detract from the current subject matter. I would welcome responses to specific to this thread there. -Thank you

[Edited by zer0phase on 12-25-2000 at 05:39 PM]

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Aberdeen, SD
Posts: 2531

Re: 16MB Visor Prism?

quote:

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Originally posted by zer0phase
I have purchased several Backup modules, each module contains a backup of a particular configuration depending on the purpose I would like my PDA to perform

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This has to be one of the most brilliant uses of the backup module I've ever heard of! Don't get them mixed up, though, or you'll be recording your weight when you mean to be balancing your checkbook .

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Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.